Issue 216

Issue 216

I (Heart) My Shop

This week marks the approach – and, in fact, the arrival, of Valentine’s Day, a holiday dedicated to expressing love. While neither St. Valentine nor Cupid is known as a symbol of love of their hobbies (unless you count archery . . .), this celebration offers a perfect opportunity to create something in the shop. (In my mind, nothing says you’re thinking of your special some one like red oak!)

It might be a gift your loved one will love in itself – or you could also use this opportunity to create a container for something like chocolates, airline tickets to a romantic getaway, a gift certificate to a spa . . . truly, the things that a wooden box can hold are endless – and so are the opportunities for relating woodworking to any and every calendar occasion.

Sometimes great inventions emerge out of little frustrations. That was the case with Michael Bucci, the inventor of a simple, versatile, stackable, colorful and astonishingly helpful little tool called the Painter’s Pyramid.